a-train
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Posts posted by a-train
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Diversify. Invest in precious metal, in food, in land, in all you can. But don't do any of this until you have your food storage and a cash financial reserve in the home.
-a-train
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Let's see if that's the case with Dictionary.com's version of Investment:
1. the investing of money or capital in order to gain profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value.
Although the dictionary said that investment is: "the investing of money or capital in order to gain profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value", we are left to ask: "What is capital"? Dictionary.com includes the following defintions of Capital:He could have claimed it was a stupid idea that wouldn't work, but instead chose to use -this- as the definition for Investment:
"Investment signifies an accumulation of savings through lower present consumption, which will then be used to achieve (potential) profitable returns in the future."
He added 'Accumulation of savings through lower present consumption', which does not exist in any dictionary on earth. Ironically, he was the one engaging in Orwellian doublespeak.
Both the second definition I've quoted and the 4th fall well in line with "Accumulation of savings through lower present consumption". We could replace one of these definitions for the word 'capital' in the definition of 'investment': "The investing of money or 'assets remaining after deduction of liabilities' in order to gain profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value." Austro-lib's "accumulation of savings through lower present consumption" is his definition for capital and it is indeed a good one. For even borrowed money is someone's savings (unless of course it is borrowed from our modern banking system which creates the 'money' out of thin air).1. the wealth, whether in money or property, owned or employed in business by an individual, firm, corporation, etc.
2. an accumulated stock of such wealth
3. any form of wealth employed or capable of being employed in the production of more wealth
4. Accounting: assets remaining after deduction of liabilities; the net worth of a business
Austro-lib is right. When trying to sell the taxpayers more services, the services have to be dressed up and made to appear to be a good thing for the taxpayer. "Investment" sounds nice, like the taxpayer is getting a return on the taxes. It certainly sounds a lot better than: "You can pay to train the employees for big businesses so they can pocket better profits".
-a-train
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Speak for yourself. There are many 'gay' Christians. There are even LDS folks who are 'gay'. My mother and uncle are in active homosexual relationships and both of them are LDS. My uncle attends Church every week with his parnter (who was also raised LDS).I'm saying that this is why Christianity is just about the last place a gay person goes for love, because it hurts more than it helps.
I find it interesting that you use a broad generalization to combat one. If broad generalizations about 'gays' is the sin of the Christian, then what makes your broad generalization of 'gays' and Christians any better?
-a-train
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Yes, welcome. The rise of faith in freedom is quickening. Every day I encounter more and more people interested in a turn back toward small government, economic freedom, and a humble foreign policy.
I think that since the death of Ezra Taft Benson, new converts to the Church have not had the principles of freedom so strikingly presented before them by our General Authorities. But that is no matter, they are finding these things as explicitly spoken of in our Standard Works as they were in any one of Marion G. Romney's, or David O. McKay's talks.
What has come as usual to the benefit of freedom is the technological advancement of the freedom of speech which in our case is: the internet. The converts to the Church today will be able to access information on the Church and our leaders and history in an unprecedented fashion. The information age is no friend to despots and harborers of tyranny.
More and more people both LDS and non are starting to learn about monetary theory, the inflation tax, and the fundamental problems with such enormous government intervention in the free market. They are starting to question the real advantages of the increasing efforts of government to redistribute wealth according to bureaucratic planning which is so obviously influenced by the most wealthy. They are beginning to ask from whom and to whom the wealthy wish to redistribute wealth and by what means they intended to do it.
The seeming lack of difference between Republican and Democrat efforts have the country going into apathy followed by a new desire for real change. As America has not lived without the control of members of the CFR, and in fact having lived under the presidency of nothing but two CFR families (Bush and Clinton, even the Reagan era had a Bush in the Presidency) for almost three decades, people are really hoping to see something new.
With Obama, there is hope for change, but we are getting a repeat of Reagan's seeming newness which amounted to yet another round of leadership from the same elites sitting in new positions at the game of musical chairs. The realization of which however is more widespread because of the internet.
I have high hopes for the upcoming generation. They are faced with being born into a country that has already committed them to pay more than half of their life's earnings in taxes. Most of them have no inheritance but debt and national morality is in shambles. They are starting to look around and wonder where there is really any progress. And as they look at history and speak to their elders, they don't buy the false presentation of an America once being a nation of slaves living in poverty and working in conditions of absolute filth and mortal danger under the falsehoods of phony religion and superstition having been saved only by fabian socialism. Rather, they see a tremendous departure from despotism and the evils attached thereto followed by one attack on liberty after another which has brought us far from the path of freedom. The great reformation of American Freedom is upon us.
Welcome to the Revolution.
-a-train
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I think the American dream is alive and well. In fact, we are just now getting back to that after a diversion to a debt-based nightmare. Hopefully America will start saving again and building the American dream.
-a-train
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Perhaps there are those who are saying things like 'Obama will institute youth training programs to brainwash our children.' But certainly austro-lib did not do so with this thread or his article. He isn't offering a pooh on Obama parade. He is speaking to a precise issue and quoting the Obama proposals directly put forth in public announcements from Obama's campaign.The problem, A-train, isn't that critical thinking is wrong. It's the histrionics. Since coming here, I've heard everything from "Obama will destroy the constitution" to "Obama will institute youth training programs to brainwash our children."
Critical thinking is vital and, honestly, when I hear some people I think "That's interesting. I wonder if it's correct?" and with other people, I think "Wow. The logic is spurious. He confuses correlation with causation and... Yes, yes... There's the Hitler argument."
I think the concern people have here is that there is a group of people who seem to think that "Anybody who disagrees with me is wrong." - This is normally bad thinking, but when it's coupled with histrionics, it's honestly mind-blowing. Disagreeing with the majority isn't wrong, but if you challenge the majority beliefs, bring evidence. You tend to do well with that. Others don't.
The introduction of the whole conversation of Hitler was austro-lib's quesiton: "We should support the President, no matter what? If Obama turned Hitler, we should support him?" This, of course, was not to say that Obama HAS 'turned Hitler' (meaning a fascist murdering dictator), but the poignant image is for the question of what is the definition of 'supporting our leaders' and how do we accomplish it? If any U.S. President HAS 'turned Hitler', it is George W. Bush.
There are some who would say that we support our president to a point and then once arriving there, our support goes no further. The idea is that they are willing to follow leadership even beyond moral principle, but there comes a point where grey fades to a black upon which they turn on the leader. This sort of support lacks definition and is ultimately arbitrary.
As austro-lib quoted, we have much better direction from Church leadership on the subject of supporting our political leaders. We stand up and support and defend the principles of truth, right, and freedom without bending to accomodate what is not right. We do so by first becoming informed and involved.
We can openly support the principles and policies of good government and criticize those that are bad. It matters not who invents them or promotes them. This is the very opposite of partisanship.
The approach is a principled one. We should not care about the race, gender, or party of a person seeking office, our concern is their principles, ideals, and approach toward government.
All the mud washed away, this whole thread comes down to this question:
Is it a good idea for the federal government to spend more tax-payer money on tuition for those designated by the federal government as worthy of such benefits?
Bastiat was referenced because his famous broken window fallacy speaks directly to this issue. What it demonstrates is that there will be no sustainable net economic gain (either collectively or individually) resulting from such a program. It's only possible effect is little more than plunder and claims that the general public is in some way benefited or that the individual recipients of the tuition are indeed enhanced are unsubstantiated. In fact, the program smells like welfare for the rich as companies seeking to defer costs associated with training employees to the taxpayers are probably the ones behind these ideas.
-a-train
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Spark Singles (LOV on the NYSE), operates a host of singles sites including:
Perhaps because the Spark sites don't directly charge the singles themselves, the situation is viewed as different. However they still make their money in advertising with these sites which are clearly designed to cater to specific groups of singles based on race, religion and even weight!!! (BBW stands for Big Beautiful Women if you need to ask)
Imagine a restaurant that had a seperate room for BBWs, and a different one for LDS folks, and yet another one for black folks. Which one would Gladys Knight end up in? Actually, is she big these days? Anyways...
Regardless, eHarmony has no way of determining whether a person is 'gay' or not. Heck, they don't even physically identify their clients do they? Do they really even know if any of the information given by their clients is valid?
Because of this reality, they cannot possibly be held liable for any discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation because they can't even verify sexual orientation in the first place.
What is being skewed here is the very definition of discrimination. Blacks were disallowed to enter a given restaurant. Civil rights sought to end such discrimination. This case does not change who can enter the door and sit at the tables, but what is on the menu.
The Civil Rights movement did not look to hold Chinese restaurants to some rule to serve hamburgers, but to offer their spring rolls and stir fry to whoever is ready to purchase regardless of skin color.
eHarmony doesn't have a pop-up that says "NO GAYS" upon accessing their index page. They simply don't have "men-seeking-men" on the menu.
-a-train
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You are a patient boy. You'll wait. You'll wait. You'll wait. You'll wait. Your time is water down a drain.While this is a rumor that is spread all over the place, the US Mint claims there is still 147.3million ounces of gold in Ft. Knox. IMO, I never know who to believe, the government or theorists. They can both seem wacky at times.
-a-train
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YouTube - Ron Paul questions Bernanke about world currency
Does the subject of gold ever come up in discussions among the central banks about the international monetary system?
"Only in terms of the sales that the central banks are planning." - Bernanke.
-a-train
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OK. Let me break this down real simple. If we aren't critical of the policies suggested by our President, we are NOT supporting him.I hear you laughing, but I'm not sure what your point is?
It appears to me that we are commanded by God to support our elected leaders?
Look, there is a LOT that I do NOT know.. but there are also some things that I DO know.
And one of them is that before President Bush went into office, our country was in good financial shape compared to what it is now.
We had money in the bank, not a HUGE deficit.
The Europeans loved us, they didn't hate us like they do now.
We were not in war brought onto us by LIES by our own government.
Then Bush swaggered along, and I supported him, as I was taught.
And man-oh-man, did he make a mess of things!?
Just think if we'd allowed him to privatize Social Security like he wanted... even MORE people would be standing outside in their shorts than are now!
At least this leader is WORKING on trying to find a solution... instead of playing golf or snickering.
Can Obama fix things?
Probably not - Bush and his friends dug too deep of a hole.
But at least he's trying...
I tried reading your article.
It didn't ring true to me so sorry... I won't respond further.
The President is elected.
I will support him to the best of my ability.
Austro-lib and I are not even anywhere near the realm of Bush supporters so you don't have to pit us against him or the failed policies of his administration.
Also, if you feel that it is fine for you to criticize Bush, why is it not just as well to do so of Obama? If Obama is considering a bad program and the people having discussed it and brought to his attention the potential problems of this policy, he may indeed forego the policy and America would be all the better.
The point is that critical thinking of our government's policies is not the opposite of support of our leaders, but it is the essence thereof.
-a-train
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For as their laws and their governments were established by the voice of the people, and they who chose evil were more numerous than they who chose good, therefore they were ripening for destruction, for the laws had become corrupted. Yea, and this was not all; they were a stiffnecked people, insomuch that they could not be governed by the law nor justice, save it were to their destruction.(Hel. 5:2-3)
-a-train
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That was federally outlawed back in 1965.What ever happened to "we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone"?
-a-train
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So are the courts going to make the homosexual dating services engage in heterosexual dating services?
-a-train
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LOL! Jeremiah and Moses were commanded by God to give the counsels they gave.The BOM and D&C had not been written yet, I guess... when Zedekiah and Moses were alive...
-a-train
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Elph did misinterpret the quote. Happens to the best of us.You notice things like this Elphaba, because you challenge ideology with evidence. That gives you an unfair advantage. :)
-a-train
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On the subject of sustaining our government, did Jeremiah fail to sustain his king (king Zedekiah) when he counseled him about his policies? How about Moses and his counsels to Pharaoh? If we, the people of a government by the people, fail to converse and offer our counsel to our leaders, are we sustaining them or failing to do so?
When our leaders are advocating policies in which we see problems, are we sustaining them by NOT warning them of these dangers? How is it that we really sustain our leadership?
-a-train
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Elph,
Let it be understood that state funded trade schools and organizations are not under attack here. UCAT is not under attack here.
Also, the statement from the wiki you quoted pointed out the benefits from NOT breaking the window. The benefits you spoke of saying 'sounds good to me' are those that come through NOT breaking the window. Go back and take a look at the wiki.
The idea Bastiat is pointing out is that it really does NOT matter how or what we compel people to buy or from whom they are compelled to buy it. But so long as the state does so, it is harmful to all the parties involved.
It will not produce any overall positive effect for persons to be compelled to purchase an education because the purchase of educational services will not be truly market driven, just as breaking windows to stimulate spending on glass and installation.
While it seems at first apparent that the glass producers and installers are doing better and are thus able to spend more money in the economy and contribute to higher tax revenues, the artificial stimulation is akin to wrapping up our engines while in neutral: there is no net gain in the end. Other businesses which may have been much more effective in providing an overall benefit to society are not being funded because of the intervention.
The issue being discussed here should not be confused with the cooperation of educational entities with employers and programs designed to train current or prospective employees.
What is being discussed is the issue of government mandates that require individuals to purchase educational services. What goes wrong is that these funds would have been allocated to some other purchase or project of which we will never know.
What would these funds have been spent on? Has anyone even bothered to ask? We simply do not know. Perhaps these funds would have helped the victims of some disaster. Perhaps they would have been spent on education anyway. Perhaps they would have been spent in the research of a new life-saving medical procedure. We are automatically choosing door number one without looking behind door number two or any other doors for that matter. Plus, the care with which these funds are allocated is never as good as that in the hearts of those who worked so hard to earn it.
FedEx was not only one example, but UPS also offers the same tuition benefit. In fact, an adult parent (male or female) can work for FedEx part time and though they only work 15 hours during a week, they are automatically paid for the minimum of 17.5 hours at a starting rate of over $12 an hour, and they are additionally given $3000 for tuition, and they receive health insurance for the whole family with no deductions after 90 days. FedEx also gives information to its employees about needed positions higher in the company which help them in making educational decisions toward advancement. This is just FedEx, one company.
Bayer, for example, does very similar things, even putting students with no prior education in the field through college to work in biological, pharmacological, and other research and work. I worked in a Bayer research lab for a time and they approached me about such prospects, but my interests were otherwise.
My grandfather, as great as he was, was not some marvel among his fellows. A great many of those men working right next to him had no better education or training than he had. How did these men do what they did?
Take these businesses who simply tell a school what they are looking for and let tax payers fill them up with employees. Do you not see how this is welfare for that business? They don't have to pay to train their employees, they let the taxpayers do that for them. You and I are compelled to 'invest' in that business. The business takes little risk and gets all the benefits. And worse, a given individual is possibly LESS secure in his position there because there are a large number of possible replacements being trained by government mandate, a condition that may have not been otherwise without the subsidies.
FedEx does the real investing. While that other company out there relies on the heavily specific nature of the training provided by government funding to lock the employee in to their business, FedEx relies on the good feelings of its employees about working with such a good company to see long-term retention.
Imagine if after some major changes in an economy, a given state decides that the solution is to mandate the purchase of trench-coats. At first, the trench-coat business would boom like never before seen and the standard of living in that area would dramatically increase and job openings would be greatly enhanced. The training in the production and design of trench-coats would increase very dramatically. Perhaps an apparent economic growth would be perceived. But what would happen as the trench-coats piled high in the closets and attics around the country? They would become worthless wouldn't they? Is training for industrial labor any different?
It really doesn't matter what skills these people are given, we are creating a surplus of those particular skills and thus devaluing them just like those trench-coats.Obama and Biden will create a transitional jobs program to place people with extreme difficulties getting and keeping good jobs into temporary, subsidized wage-paying jobs to gain necessary job skills before applying for unsubsidized jobs in the private and public sectors.
Do you see the problem being pointed out here?
-a-train
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And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. (John 9:1-3)
-a-train
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I used to fret over what to tithe due to all the intricacies of accounting for my personal business until I realized that it is better to simply pay tithing each week for the amount equal to my expected annual income divided by 52 (number of weeks in a year). If at the end of the year, I find I was too low or too high, I simply increase or decrease my weekly tithes. There is no looking back and either justifying a time going without tithing or any sudden great sums to pay off tithes previously not paid. This way, I never have to wonder if I've paid my tithing.
It has been a tremendous blessing on me and my family.
-a-train
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I am a son of God.
be like him in what sense?
NO, not as pure as God but if you're talking about how he sees us, throught the work of Christ then I'd agree that he sees us as pure because of that but "As God"-no
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)
We shall be like Him in the sense that we shall "see Him as He is", just as He sees us as we are. Does this mean we will comprehend God? It certainly must. For God certainly comprehends us as He sees us. How can we see Him as He is and not comprehend Him?
The verse says plainly that "every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as [God] is pure." No uncleanness can exist in God's Presence, else there is no need for any purification through Christ.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)
The Blood of Christ is not only partially effective. It is sufficient to make man as pure as God.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)
Christ's blood cleans us from not just some sin, but ALL.
-a-train
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How can we be so sure that the student will be qualified to enter the workforce upon graduation? Or that there is any job awaiting him/her? Or that he/she will make a "good" wage when hired? There are many Americans with degrees working in unrelated positions because of the marketability of their degree. Engineers, lawyers, and political scientists are selling cars, insurance, or managing a retail store.- the student will be qualified to enter the workforce immediately after he‘s completed his schooling/training.
- the student will make a good wage, which would never have happened without the government’s investment in him.
- because he now makes a good wage, he will also contribute money to the tax base.
- this money offsets the cost of his initial training.
- a well-trained/educated workforce attracts companies looking to relocate.
- the re-located company will hire employees who are already skilled in the positions it needs.
- if the company needs its employees trained in skills not available in the regular curriculum, the state’s custom-fit department will fund the development of this curriculum.
- this additional training can result in even higher wages, and an increased contribution to the tax base.
- because of the custom-fit training, the company will not be able to easily lay off anyone, because it needs people who knows to run the company's equipment and machinery.
- a well-trained workforce contributes to a company’s success, and if this re-located company is successful, it will add to the tax base as well.
- the government now has enough money to fund even more people’s training, and the cycle begins again.
A friend of mine who has nothing but a high-school diploma works for the same grocery store he started sacking at when only 14 years old. Today, almost 20 years later, at the age of 33, he makes a six-figure income in a management position and has a nice retirement in balance. His ethnicity is Latin and Native American. Not a dime of tax-payer 'investment' or any article of government regulation created this scenario for this individual of ethnic minority without any college education.
Further, there are many non-union, non-state, corporate programs that accomplish very efficiently the whole process being described. Fed-Ex, for example, gives $3,000 a year in tuition in addition to their pay to part-time employees who work only 18 hours a week. Thousands of Americans get their undergraduate studies through such programs while not placing any burden on the taxpayers.
Many of these are in certificate programs that allow people to go into fields such as firefighting, police work, or automotive service.
Many of the schools these students attend are already vastly funded by local, county, and state taxes. The only reason they even charge the students anything is to weed out the multitude of those not serious about their education and the costs are less than $3000 a year for full-time study.
The problem with education in America has always been and remains to be federal intrusion. The Washington bureaucrats are not educators and are completely out of step with market trends. They have no idea what current market demands are in education and thus are inept in supplying them. Head Start and No Child Left Behind have not proven anything but federal failure in the education of America.
My grandfather having nothing but a sixth-grade education, built airplanes that bombed Japan. He new trigonometry, he owned his own business, he manufactured clothing and golf equipment, his younger brother was a Texas millionaire who built roads and owned a rock quarry with no college education at all. Meanwhile, I sat next to students who suffered severe reading difficulties in my 12th grade high-school English class. The community colleges have math programs that teach long-division to high-school graduates.
Government involvement in American education has been nothing but the dumbing down of the curriculum and the awarding of diplomas/degrees to students of less and less capability.
Books once wildly popular in America, best sellers of the 19th Century, are practically unreadable to high-school students today. Students turn in math homework before leaving class as they are able to hastily complete the 20 math problems at passing levels. Meanwhile the rate at which new material is covered gets slower and slower to facilitate the passing grades of those who don't even turn in their homework.
What is incredible is that many Americans get a better education from google and the library than they got in school.
The problem with American education at all levels is not the lack of federal funding or oversight, but the existence thereof.
-a-train
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It makes me wonder if the United States is heading the same way Germany was under the Weimar Republic...sure you guys aren't paying reparations to other countries, but in a sense you're being forced to pay money for the mistakes of business corporations and unconstitutional federal institues.
Eventually, (And I know some of you think it's Obama...I still don't think it's gotten to that point yet to compare the man to Hiter) some person in the future, promising huge changes in the economic system will be elected. In order to create prosperity and order this person will chip away at the fundamental freedoms of the Union.
To quote Star Wars: So this is the way democracy ends, admist thundering cheering. (Just paraphrasing that).
The descent into modern totilitarianism is a gradual process whereby people give up liberty for comfort.
It happened in Italy, and Germany and numerous other countires.
(I won't include Russia, or China in that list because one kind of totilitarianism was merely replaced by another)
What do you mean EVENTUALLY?!?!?!? Perhaps Obama?!?!? Please! The administration of George W. Bush, in the name of peace and prosperity, put a jack-hammer to the pillar of freedom in America.
The chipping has already turned to an outright "war on freedom".
-a-train
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Racism has long been little more than a false mechanism used by subtle conspirators to stir up conflict by which they design to enrich and empower themselves for their own selfish purposes.
-a-train
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I find it funny how the masses are all in the know about how auto execs flew in private jets to Washington to ask for a bail-out. The auto guys are a scapegoat. They are nothing but show to give the world the impression that Washington stood up to the big bad capitalists. Meanwhile, the real enemy, the international bankers, are commencing the largest consolidation of economic power in world history and nobody seems to care.
Who told the media to point out the auto guys?
We should be letting everything go bankrupt and not give them one cent, MOST importantly financial institutions which sell products that they simply conjure into existence (isn't that illegal?).
On the issue of gasoline, I don't think we have a nice two years of low gas prices to look forward to. The economic summit (which is nothing but a hollywood show designed to make us think the legitimate world governments are calling the shots on international finance) will provide no solutions. The REAL financiers are simply consolidating wealth and economic power. As soon as this is accomplished to their approval: bye-bye dollar, hello $5 a gallon.
The word for today is: STAGFLATION.
"The inflationism of the currency systems of Europe has proceeded to extraordinary lengths. The various belligerent Governments, unable, or too timid or too short-sighted to secure from loans or taxes the resources they required, have printed notes for the balance." - John Maynard Keynes (socialist economist) The Economic Consequences of the Peace 1919
-a-train
We can become gods?
in Christian Beliefs Board
Posted
The Bible teaches plainly that men are gods and children of the Most High. Claims that the LDS belief in such is unbiblical are simply ridiculous. I have worn myself out quoting the scriptures of the Bible that demonstrate plainly that the whole point of man's creation is to rise him to immortality and eternal life and to give to him a throne and a crown in heaven. If you don't believe it, you don't believe the Bible.
-a-train